Mario sat back, staring out of the bus window. Alusia was far away enough that all he could see was a feint orange glow where the fire continued to rage on.
The drive to the airport would be a long one, so he began to reflect.
Captain Unstoppable. A classic sci-fi story, gone wrong by participant choice. A fun experience. Everything felt normal then, even if the Story was missing its expected happy ending. But then the errors began to appear, along with a sense of dread in Mario. Was it a trap? The efforts to break the simulation kept failing.
Killing the guide in the Snow Story didn’t work. Then Alusia employee was found stranded in the middle of an icy cave? That wasn’t normal…
Could Alusia be using it employees to play characters?
A quick search in the library disproved it. Or at least, that employee wasn’t an employee anymore. But then the Princess was in the wrong castle. But at this point, the participants had learned to manipulate the narrative, bringing the Story to its best ending.
Help me.
The words stood out like a sore thumb. Why was there a help me message in the Epilogue? Was someone in trouble? Then came the Watering Hole. Mario knew what to do now, researching the Story before hand and using his pre-found knowledge to drive the narrative to a success.
But the cries for help didn’t stop.
Mario’s focus shifted back to understanding the workings of the Bookworm. First, by adding to the contents of one of the terminals and entering another. Surely seeing the inventor of the Bookworm would reveal some of the hidden truths?
Mario will never forget that moment. Ariel casually saying that the Bookworm was a human brain. The realisation that the machine he was using wasn’t a machine, but a person instead. And that person was being tortured. Then came the rage, the disgust, and the determination to help. What Alusia had done, and were continuing to do to Violet was beyond unacceptable, and it needed to change.
So Mario fought for Violet.
What was that smell? Burning?
Mario took off his helmet. There was a fire in the neuroscience department. First, a warning to Violet, then action.
Fighting through the fire, Mario reached where Violet was being held. With some help from Avery, Mario threatened the Alusia employee to move its consciousness into Laszlo’s dead body. Waiting, watching, burning…
The body took a breath.
Then came the escape. Fire consuming the room, Mario and Avery picked up Violet and ran to the library. But Violet wasn’t in Lazslo’s body. It was in Eli’s.
Eli, now in Lazslo’s body, and Violet, now in Eli’s body, breathed a sigh of relief and gratitude as the group move to safety in the desert.
Violet was human, and Violet was free.
The bus came to a stop outside the airport, and Mario turned to disembark.
“Thanks again Mario! I’ll see you soon!”